I could hear the music pumping the moment I stepped out of the lift. Secretly hoping it was my students having the party, I skipped down the hallway. Sure enough, as I walked into my classroom, I was presented with balloons, food and drink on the tables and a huge bouquet of flowers on my desk. Not to mention the handful of students having a good old Karaoke session. I just manage to take in a breath before all my students noticed my presence and burst into a round of applause. Never a huge fan of being the centre of attention (*cough cough*) I actually felt nervous as I walked down to the front of the room.

I’ve had final lesson celebrations before and I’m no stranger to the odd gift or card from a student (as I talk about here in a previous post) but I’ve never had my students go so out of their way to make a fuss. It was so thoughtful of them. What made this act of kindness particularly special for me was the fact that this was a beginner class. Just 8 weeks ago I was teaching this bunch of teenagers how to say their age and nationality and now, here they are writing notes like this to me:

Lets ignore the spelling error of my name for now …

But really, it shouldn’t be me that takes the credit for their achievements, they have come such along way in the past 2 months and it is solely down to their hard work and determination. As I’m sure teachers all over the world will agree, it’s a rarity to find a dedicated class of teenagers. But these guys were just that; they made my job a breeze. As they shouted “thank you teacher” and offered me some Jollibee fried chicken, fries and ice-cream, I couldn’t help but think, “it should be me that’s thanking you guys”.

**Although, my stomach did beg to differ a short 4 hours later (Vietnamese fast food is the work of the devil)**

Teaching is tough, even at the best of times, especially with a youngster class like this one, but its moments like this that makes the late nights, lesson planning and exam marking totally worth it.

Hi Kerri, I just stumbled across your blog from a comment you’d posted on TripAdvisor. I really enjoyed reading your blog, you’re an entertaining writer (with plenty of material to work with I’m sure). I have recently moved to Vietnam – I’m two months into my two year volunteer assignment – and also live in District 3. I’m a Speech Pathologist from Australia working at a University to train Vietnamese professionals to become Speech Therapists – we currently have a 2yr post-grad course. I look forward to reading more of your blogs. I continually explain to friends and family: living in Vietnam, every day is an adventure – even just getting to work most days is an adventure!! 😀
Cheers,
Simone

Wow, what you’re doing sounds incredibly interesting – how are you finding it? I lived in District 2 last year and hated it, but I’ve never been happier here in District 3. You’re certainly right, living out here is a continuous adventure, it’s definitely keeping me entertained! Would love to hear more about your adventures, have you thought about starting a blog yourself? Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, hopefully you will continue to enjoy my future posts 😀

Hi Kerri! Thanks for liking my post about the Cu Chi Tunnels- especially since it led me here to look at your blog! I have really enjoyed everything I’ve seen so far and can’t wait for the chance to see more of Vietnam. Your teaching experiences are also rather interesting to me since I trained as a teacher in the UK and fell out of love with it pretty swiftly! I’m wondering if Vietnam might be the place to rekindle that fire… Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂

No problem! And thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I have to say, while I’ve never been a teacher in the UK, I can safely vouch for the fact that the kids out here are 100% more respectful of the teacher. It’s rare that I have to enforce any kind of discipline. I personally love teaching in Vietnam and always recommend it to anyone tinkering with it as an option. Hope you enjoy the rest of your time out here! 😀

Thank you for posting the super movie clip of Saigon c 1945. Please see my boards on PINTEREST, I am sure you will like them. I am also on Fb. I will be over in December for further discussions with my Partner Travel Company and will be living in Saigon for extended periods next year.